In one corner of the mediasphere, a local television station is getting a lot of backlash from the left for daring to report on the people arrested in Seattle.
KING-TV isn’t particularly known for right-wing journalism. It’s an NBC affiliate in the Pacific Northwest’s largest city, owned by Tegna, the former television arm of media conglomerate Gannett.
In terms of news, there’s nothing extraordinary about it. It’s not sensationalist and it’s not a shill for any kind of cause.
On Thursday, KING’s Chris Ingalls did a piece on 95 arrest records for individuals who were taken into custody and charged during the riots and unrest in Seattle. He found — and here’s a shocker — that 48 percent of suspects were white and only 32 percent listed Seattle as their hometown.
Kelly Jackson is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police vehicles. He was already awaiting trial on three cases stemming from incidents where he allegedly broke into into a ferry toll booth, a marijuana dispensary and an animal rescue facility (where authorities say he helped himself to a 100-pound Rottweiler).
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The stepson of former Kirkland state Rep. Laura Ruderman, 19-year-old Jacob Greenburg allegedly smashed a metal baseball bat into the head of a Seattle police officer. Ingalls reported the officer is probably still alive thanks to his bike helmet.
In an alleged text message to a friend, Greenburg reportedly said, “Wish he didn’t have a helmet on lol.”
Jeremiah Hilbert has already confessed to looting, doing his part to hasten the revolution of the proletariat: “You can’t help but want to see the demise of corporate society,” he told KING days after pleading guilty to ransacking a Seattle Old Navy.
Indeed, as Ingalls noted, “The records indicate the common thread among most suspects is their hostility toward government, the police, and corporate America.”
WHO ARE THEY? @K5Investigators poured over nearly 100 arrest records from the Seattle protests. Who are the people that are allegedly looting, setting fires and turning violent? Our investigation finds some surprising answers, tonight on @KING5Seattle at 6:30. pic.twitter.com/VVfHmw3ws3
— Chris Ingalls (@CJIngalls) October 29, 2020
And, apparently, corporate media:
Seattle kicking off with the larpers crying about their arrest records going public. pic.twitter.com/pn2wgw6KWk
— CIA-Simulation Warlord 🇺🇸👻🎃🇺🇸 (@zerosum24) October 30, 2020
As protesters descended upon the KING-TV building Thursday, one of them says, “I’m trying to protect the lives of protesters because they’re going to dox them and put them in the public.” (The protest, which seemed to involve demonstrators barging into the building, apparently occurred before Ingalls’ report went live, but after he teased it on Twitter.)
Doxing, for the uninitiated, is putting someone’s private details into the public domain, usually to encourage people to harass or bully them, or worse.
“We have hate groups, we have hate groups, listen,” the demonstrator tells a police officer, because clearly he’s not listening. He’s on the phone, possibly calling for backup.
Those “hate groups,” our intrepid protester explains, are “looking to kill and harm protesters, and they want to sit there and put the protesters’ public information.”
Is what KING-TV did “doxing”?
KING doxed these protesters as much as CNN’s coverage of the charges of the O.J. Simpson car chase doxed him. That’s a reductio ad absurdum, of course, but arrests are public record and reporting on them is not even close to doxing — especially since doxing usually involves someone’s address, digital accounts, place of work and other such information.
At least one person was apparently arrested Thursday.
Now they’re getting arrested. pic.twitter.com/nhf75iOtYj
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 30, 2020
And if you’re still trying to get a sense of how angry protesters were at KING, check out the replies to Ingalls’ tweet below.
Your reporting is going to get people harassed, assaulted, and possibly killed. Do not do this without anonymizing the info, faces, voices, etc. of the people you profile, or pull the story entirely. Anything else is complicity in the violence directed at them as a result.
— 💥Mardoz the Antifascist ✊🌹🏳️🌈 (@marshunfocused) October 29, 2020
Doxing protestors isn’t journalism. When these people are harassed or harmed, it will be on your heads.
— MK – Anti-Fascist Bitch (@mk_rodgers) October 30, 2020
You’re creating a hit list for violent right wing extremists. When someone gets hurt or killed as a result of this sensationalist crap, I hope you get sued into oblivion.
Local network media is on a race to the bottom. We deserve better.
— I. Hernandez (@Hernando_206) October 29, 2020
This is extremely inappropriate and could get people hurt. Rethink this now.
— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) October 29, 2020
This is extremely irresponsible
— justanurse (@hmrobertson) October 30, 2020
Delete this tweet. Delete this story.
— Chris “Little Richard started Rock n’ Roll” Heller (@hellertime) October 30, 2020
The only reason why they would think this way is because they believe they’re the good guys. If they did anything wrong, it’s just because the system says it was wrong.
Therefore, everything they do needs to be excused as necessary. Conceding that it might not have been brands you as an enemy.
It’s not even worth taking these individuals to task on this.
What’s more disturbing is when a reporter is being told what to do by the radical far left and their apologists, some of whom have stormed KING’s headquarters, and there’s not a peep out of the national media.
These are the men and women who’ll bravely invoke the names of Edward R. Murrow, Jamal Khashoggi and Daniel Pearl. They hiss at President Donald Trump’s supposed intimidation of the media — which, last I checked, was able to report on him rather freely.
Yet, not even one Jim Acosta– or Chris Hayes-type could find a moment of airtime to maybe condemn those trying to intimidate Ingalls and the station.
Their silence speaks every bit as loudly as these tweets.
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